Will Zalatoris aces No. 14, wins two new cars at The Genesis Invitational

Will Zalatoris has a new ride home from The Genesis Invitational.

He can thank his tee shot on the 14th hole for that.

Using a 7-iron, Zalatoris aced the 184-yard par-3 14th hole during his second-round 70 at The Riviera Country Club. His ball landed on the front left edge of the green and slowly rolled into the cup. Zalatoris receives a Genesis GV80 while Joel Stock, his caddie, gets an electric Genesis Electrified GV70, the prize for the first ace of the week at The Genesis Invitational.

“I think it was 180, pin back, into the wind and we were just trying to hit it kind of right in the middle of that gap between the two bunkers,” Zalatoris said after his round. “I just pulled it about 10 feet and it landed perfectly on the fringe and killed it.

“Lucky to go in,” he added. “It was a nice little bonus.”

Matt Kuchar and Sam Ryder, Zalatoris’ playing partners, said the shot looked good all the way.

“I was walking with Kuch, we were kind of ahead, and he said, ‘Give the kid a car,’” Ryder said.

When the ball dropped and the crowd erupted, Zalatoris, who had major back surgery last April, threw his club in the air and leapt into the arms of his caddie. Both were aware of the cars that hung in the balance from the start of the week.

“(Zalatoris) holed a shot from the fairway on (hole No.) 3 in the pro-am,” Stock said, “and he jokingly said, ‘The lid's off now,’ so I guess it was.”

Zalatoris said this was his 10th ace; before Friday, his most prominent hole-in-one came on the seventh hole of the first round of the 2020 U.S. Open at Winged Foot. That gave way to a dry spell that he felt was due, or maybe overdue, to end.

“We've been talking about it,” he said. “Like I went through a stretch in like 2020 where I made like five and I haven't made one since, so I was like I'm going to make one sooner or later.”

Zalatoris’ ace at Riviera flipped his round from 1-over to 1-under. After a relatively clean round of 66 on Thursday, he had made four bogeys and three birdies through 13 holes of his second round.

“I kind of drove it all over the place,” he said after signing for a 1-under 70, which left him firmly in the top 10.

Asked whether his old boss, Ben Crane, ever won him a car, Stock said no.

“Not a car, just a bunch of Wyndham points one time,” Stock said. “I just like seeing the hole-in-ones, that's what excites me.”

Added Zalatoris, “He's staying for free everywhere and he's driving for free everywhere he wants to now, so pretty good.”

Both will leave the Pacific Palisades in style this week.